4 in 10 people do not have a good understanding of how their health insurance works

In our crazy for-profit driven health care marketplace, health insurers likely profit from people not understanding insurance terms. For sure, people end up spending more on their care than they should.

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey reveals that about half of all people asked to figure out what they would have to pay out of pocket for a hospital visit could not do so. Only one in three people understood the concept of a “health insurance formulary,” a list of covered drugs. And, just slightly more than 4 in 10 knew that doctors providing services in an in-network hospital could be out of network.

Overall test results were particularly troubling, with only four percent of respondents answering all ten questions about how their health insurance works correctly. Just under three in ten of all respondents (28 percent) answered four or fewer questions correctly. A disturbing minority of respondents (8 percent) did not answer a single question correctly.